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Interview with Edmond Ayoub
Company: Metanomia Consultoria Estratégica Whom did you work with before becoming a consultant? What will you do in ten years? What kind of people do you like to work with? Is there someone whom you would describe as very intelligent? After working many years as a consultant, are there any project that have given you special pride, joy or new knowledge? Why is your company a member of IMCN?
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Position: CEO
Where did you learn the basics of running a business?
In today’s fast paced and ever changing world it’s not enough to learn the basics of business. You’ve got to keep improving and expanding your knowledge in order to find new and creative ways to tackle complex business matters. Even the apparently “simple” businesses are nowadays facing tough situations and know hardly how to deal with their sophisticated competitors.
Having graduated in Business Administration in 1981, I started working for 3M, where I was in charge of sales and marketing of several industrial divisions of its Middle East subsidiary. 4 years later I moved on to one of Schlumberger’s companies that manufactured X-ray equipment for Airport security. A couple of years later, I switched over to a Belgian multinational, Vandemoortele, active in food products. There, I was initially in charge of several European countries before starting up the Spanish subsidiary where I stayed on for 8 years as General Manager. I also held that same position in a couple of Spanish food companies before starting my own consulting practise in 2007.
I do like the diversity of consulting assignments; therefore my intention is to continue with consulting. I am also serving as a board member of a few companies.
The challenge is to be able to work with all kinds of people, regardless of personal preferences. I’ve always learned much more from working with people whom, initially and for some reason or another, I didn’t particularly like. After you get to know them better, you’ll usually find that several qualities of theirs make up for the questionable first impression.
Intelligence as defined by IQ is not enough. Many people with high IQ scores fail in life for lack of emotional or social intelligence. It seems to me that being gifted with a high IQ has little personal merit attached to it. The challenge lies in having the willingness to strive to become a balanced person who scores high on the multiple dimensions of intelligence.
Most of my consulting assignments started out being very specific and related, say, either to finance, marketing or human relations to name just a few. Quickly though, we always seem to move from the specific to the more general strategic implications for the business. I particularly enjoy these moments when one can help the client see the real shortcomings they are failing to address and start working together on the deep and far reaching strategic issues being faced.
We all need to build our network. This is why the so called social media, Linkedin, Facebook or Twitter, are having such a tremendous success. IMCN offers us the possibility to increase our reach, both internationally and from the standpoint of expertise availability.
